“Absolutely. Won’t breathe a word, especially after he gets his cut of the ransom.”
Ransom.
Fucking Seamus!
Caleb nodded, stepping away. “You’ll have your half when the job is finished.”
“What do you want us to do with him? After she sends the cash?” Seamus asked, gaining back the step Caleb had taken.
I started, blinking my disbelief. Seamus’s question shocked the hell out of me. My brother was a worthless piece of shit, but I’d never known him to take orders from anyone except our ma. Ever.
Ever.
And now he was asking Caleb for his opinion? Or rather, asking him for direction on what to do? Nah. This wasn’t right. Something was up.
“I told you before, I don’t care how you do it.” Tiny Satan glanced around the warehouse, sounding agitated.
Seamus studied Caleb for a minute, like he was thinking through a puzzle. “Why do you want him dead so much?”
Caleb’s glare moved over Seamus, and then settled on me. His eyes sharpened with menace and a rage, I imagine a vein or two was probably popping out of his forehead.
“He’s in the way.”
“You’re talking about Caravel? You want those shares your cousin owns?”
“Caravel can crash and burn, I don’t give a shit about Caravel. And soon no one else will either, when it’s insolvent and the stock price is in the toilet.”
“So what’s the deal? Why not take the ransom money and run?”
Caleb scoffed at Seamus, tugging on his cuff links. “Please. Three million won’t last me a year.”
“You mean one point five.”
“What?” Caleb snapped.
“One point five. Your take is half.”
“Oh, right. The point is, I need him gone and my loony cunt of a cousin committed—where she belongs. They’re in the way.”
“How are they in the way?”
Tiny Satan’s glare moved back to Seamus. Then he turned, strolling back to the exit like he didn’t have a care in the world and calling over his shoulder, “None of your fucking business. You do your part, and I’ll do mine. When it’s over, you’ll get your half.”
Seamus, hands in his pockets, watched the man go. He held still, like he was waiting for something. A vehicle started, and I listened as it pulled away, eventually fading into the distance.
Once it was quiet again, Seamus called out, “I told you fucking assholes not to knock him out.”
Ricky appeared in the doorway to the adjacent room—right behind him were Conner and John—and walked over to me. “He’s not knocked out, he’s holding still.”
When Ricky removed my hood, I took a deep breath, tilting my neck to one side to stretch it.
Seamus, his eyes moving over me, smirked. “Get that fucking tape off his mouth.”
“I’ll do it.” Mark hurried over, apparently not wanting to miss another chance to yank the duct tape from my face.
He did it, slower than necessary, drawing it out. When he was done he winked at me. “That’s for the taser.”
“Are we even?” I asked, stretching my lips. “Or do I have to watch you give yourself a Lucky Stranger?”
Now Mark smirked, shaking his head like he thought I was funny, and walked away.
My attention returned to my brother. He was watching me, a happy but small smile curving his mouth and behind his eyes.
“You hear all that?” he asked, like he was pleased with himself.
“Yeah.” I nodded, giving him a once-over. “You planning to kill me?”
His smile dropped. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Asking me shit like that?”
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it, assface. What do I look like? Willy Wonka?”
He sputtered for a moment, and then hollered at me, “You’re my brother, dipshit. I’m not killing my goddamn brother.” Seamus turned, grabbed a chair and dragged it over to where I was sitting. “I fucking swear to Christ, you’re so fucking stupid sometimes.”
I waited until he’d sat down before speaking. “Are you going to untie me?”
“Not yet. Not until you listen. Then I’ll untie you.”
“Fine. Talk.”
Seamus studied me for a beat, then launched into it. “This is what happened. So, that rich fuckstain? Caleb Tyson? He comes to me last week, tells me he’s Kathleen Caravel-Tyson’s cousin and she’s crazy. She needs to be committed and he’s worried about you. She’s got a psycho mother, locked up in a hospital somewhere, and she’s a danger to my brother.”
“How is Kat a danger to me?”
He held his hands up. “I’m just telling you what Tyson told me. He says that he had a court order to be her guardian, so she tricked you into marrying her. He also said, if she inherited, she’d be worth billions. But she was safer locked away, then she wouldn’t be a danger to you. He also said, if anything happened to her, he’d pay a ransom to get her back.”